Jade Howson, Danny Ching Win 2017 Hanohano Huki Challenge

Jade Howson, Danny Ching Win 2017 Hanohano Huki Challenge

Nearly 400 paddlers converged in San Diego’s Mission Bay on Saturday morning for the 2017 Hanohano Huki Ocean Challenge, one of California’s biggest standup paddle races and San Diego’s flagship SUP event. A long list of the sport’s top athletes as well as more casual paddlers were graced with 70-degree weather and virtually no wind for the five-mile SUP race, which marked the first major race of the 2017 season.

While the men didn’t fail to perform in either the Unlimited or the 14′ classes, the biggest story of the day came when Jade Howson bested her runner-up finish in the 2016 Hanohano with an overall victory in the Women’s 12’6″ class ahead of Santa Cruz’s uprising powerhouse, Kali’a Alexiou. Howson’s Hanohano victory comes only a few months after she took second overall in the 2016 Pacific Paddle Games Jr. Pro Women’s division, further solidifying the young charger’s reputation as a rising start to be reckoned with at the elite level. And did we mention she’s only 14?

On the Men’s side, Chuck Glynn and Thomas Maximus took the top two line honors, respectively, on their unlimited boards. Behind them, Danny Ching maintained his traditional stranglehold on the event’s 14′ division after narrowly edging out Chase Kosterlitz for first-place by a margin of less than three seconds. Infinity SUP’s Dave “Brown Blurr” Boehne finished a mere six seconds behind Kosterlitz with a time of 50:42 to round out the top-3 podium in the 14′ class.